My head hurts:
Ben Carson rejected a role in President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet, The Hill reported on Tuesday morning. According to the retired neurosurgeon and former Republican primary candidate’s close friend and manager Armstrong Williams, “Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position [in the administration], but everything was open to him.” Ultimately, Williams said, “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
Carson knows the real money is in Wingnut Welfare.
WereBear
Too bad Trump didn’t figure that out. He could be riding the sweet sweet rally ego wave. Instead of actually working, like a prole.
chopper
better for carson. this administration is gonna be a huge fail parade.
chopper
you’d think he’d be pushing hard for surgeon general at this point.
WereBear
Myself, I am thinking Trump will resign for health reasons. Which will mean we’ll die burned at the stake individually instead of a massive nuclear fireball.
And I don’t even get to choose.
Hildebrand
I have a feeling President Obama’s revenge will be the constant drip-drip-drip of advice to Trump about just how much crap there is to do every damn day. ‘You know, Donald, after the first couple of years of 18 hour days, you start to feel like you are getting in the groove.’
amorphous
@WereBear: Don’t you think that is what he was actually banking on? I expect he wanted to win for the sake of winning, had no real expectation of doing so, and then licensing out #MAGA! branded Pepe tee shirts or whatever to the Ragey Boomer generation and making some bank on that and Trump branded tricorner hats.
GrandJury
@chopper: Yea, I think Carson is smart enough to know a bad bet when he sees one. Better off keeping his options open for a 2020 run.
schrodinger's cat
Jeff Session aide is in charge of immigration policy. Be very afraid.
CarolDuhart2
There are still governmental rules about outside income and disclosure, not to mention he would have to defend Donald Trump on well, everything. And live a life in the background. And do boring administrative stuff.
On the outside, he would potentially make more money than his government salary without all of the work, scrutiny and boredom.
Pogonip
I can’t remember where but I saw an article to the effect that Trump’s was a protest candidacy, he never expected to win.
He may still not be installed as president, 21 states allow faithless electors.
GrandJury
@Hildebrand: I seriously doubt Trump will ask for Obama’s advice. Right now perhaps, for some things, but his ego will not allow him to continue doing it.
Big Ole Hound
All these massive egos clashing and nobody wants to actually do the “job”. Except Pence, SOS.
Hildebrand
@GrandJury: Oh, I know. But from now until Inauguration Day, I imagine Obama making sure that Trump gets a daily dose of that feeling of sitting an exam you never studied for.
Percysowner
@Pogonip: Well, the votes aren’t going to go to Clinton, so we get the election thrown to the House and end up with Mike Pence? Or do they go relatively sane and choose say Kasich?
D58826
Cole beat me to it. The number of desk pounding items on tywitter today is amazing.
Oh but since Carson has decided that he doesn’t want the job the speculation is turning to Bobby Jindhl. I might actually prefer Carson.
WereBear
@amorphous: Based on my experience with narcissists, what goes on in his head is nothing like what we liberals call “thinking.”
He ran for President, and suddenly he was getting all this attention. He did rallies, and people cheered him and stomped their feet. In his mind, he IS the greatest businessman on earth in any era, so he WILL just come in and order all these people to get cracking on Making America Great Again and he’s outa there to do whatever the flip he does.
And set up cons for himself.
Knowing what people want to hear and how to get them to do his bidding without paying them. He really is GREAT at that. And that is what he is going to do.
geg6
You answered your own question, Cole.
He never wanted anything more than the wingnut welfare.
Pearls101
But he wanted to be the President?!!!! Just a grifter.
catclub
@GrandJury:
I think he missed a chance for a fixed salary and no boss. PLus he could ignore any ethics laws because who would be enforcing them?
catclub
@Pogonip:
you wish, I wish. It isn’t going to happen.
hovercraft
@WereBear:
Ding, ding, ding. Grifters gonna grift. Too bad their fans didn’t see through the con.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
Why has nobody ever taken a baseball bat to Art Laffer’s skull on live TV? I’d pay per view and watch that over and over and over again.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I don’t think Pence can govern his way off the toilet. Trump’s presidency will be one on-going cluster-f***,a series of low and high-grade fiascos like when Reagan opined that ketchup was a vegetable. The new administration can say whatever it wants, but it won’t get whatever it wants. The pushback will be brutal and relentless and very entertaining to behold.
Mnemosyne
Since today is the day for rage and bitterness at our own side in my grief process, let me take just a minute here:
Fuck all you stupid motherfuckers who decided that the pro-woman, pro-labor, pro-civil rights Merrick Garland wasn’t good enough for you precious fucking snowflakes. I hope you’re proud of yourselves. You’ve fucked us over for a generation because you decided you wanted to hold out for someone better, someone younger, someone who didn’t decide one (1) case in the way you preferred, because “civil liberties” are more important to you than civil rights.
And if anyone says a single fucking thing like But Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have retired, hur-hurr! I swear to God I will rip your balls off and stuff them down your motherfucking throat. There was an open seat, and you fucking ignored that open seat so you could cling to your fucking butthurt that RBG didn’t retire on your fucking schedule.
We had the Supreme Court in our hands, and we decided to hold out for a perfect justice, not merely a great one with a long history of supporting our side.
So fuck all of you who insisted that you knew “better” and we should hold out for someone else. I hope you burn in hell, you stupid motherfuckers.
Major Major Major Major
I would say oh thank god he won’t be secretary of education (we take DoE money) but shit, now they might replace him with somebody who would competently trash the place
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m pretty sure that’s Steve
Miller, who’s been on loan to the Shitgibbon for months, I think he wrote the Arizona immigration speech after the visit to Mexico. So yes be very afraid.
Betty Cracker
Am I the only one who detects a dig at Trump in Carson’s remarks? My guess is Carson wanted a big job, didn’t get it, and now he’s pointing out that he’s not qualified in terms that very much apply to Trump. (Or maybe I’m giving Carson too much credit.)
D58826
@West of the Rockies (been a while): But at least Reagan was surrounded by fairly mainstream (if rightward leaning) adults.
hovercraft
@Pogonip: A couple of people who were with him at the beginning said this, they left when they realized he had no policies and wasn’t planning on developing any because he thought it was a lark.
Another Holocene Human
@chopper: Amazing that Sleepy has more neurons to rub together than Drumpf.
Woodrowfan
@Mnemosyne: (applauds) AMEN
Woodrowfan
I think you all are assuming far too much rationality from these clowns..
Rasputin's Evil Twin
Carson makes me think there’s such a thing as an idiot-savant-brain surgeon.
Trump makes me think kindly about Nixon.
Dear God, I need several drinks.
schrodinger's cat
Trump is going to deport 3 million immigrants. Jeff Sessions is in charge of the immigration policy. There are plans to deny visitor visas to citizens of 21 countries, including India and China.
Mothra
@WereBear: yes – Mike Pence wants to be President of Gilead.
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne: ??? Because Democrats were totally in control of that. FFS, now this is some true circular firing squad shit right here.
Pogonip
@catclub: Who knows? Trump may at this moment be calling electors and yelling “Get me out of this!”
The Dangerman
@WereBear:
I doubt Trump really works in the traditional sense as President; he’s offloading as much shit as possible (another reason his kids need to have the Clearances) to others.
Now, if you consider work to be golfing at a Trump Golf Course (presumably paying a yuuuuuuuuge premium to play there), then, sure, he’ll work some.
WaterGirl
@The Dangerman: The thing is, Dump at this point has no idea of what he needs to offload. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He is in way over his head.
Another Holocene Human
@schrodinger’s cat: Punish those libtards in America’s tourist traps because uppity furrin tourists don’t turn out to see the Corn Queen Crowned and passed on the World’s Largest Ball of Twine.
eta: and short Disney!
D58826
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Given that Trump has been on more sides of every issue than a rubic’s cube has cubes, I think what you have to watch for is who he puts in his administration. He might say somewhat nicer things about Obamacare or mass deportation this week then he did last but if he puts people in his administration that are dedicated to destroying the law or deporting 11 million people then that is what counts. And I suspect he will give them pretty much a free hand to carry out their own agenda as long as it doesn’t diminish the spotlight on him
Woodrowfan
@Mothra: “The Handmaiden’s Tale” is Pence’s version of porn. (fap fap fap)
catclub
@D58826:
Only in hindsight. James Watt was not mainstream until Reagan made it that way. Likewise Meese and Ollie North. Wackos.
The Moar You Know
Huh, all that time he looked like he was sleeping. Guess he had a thought or two about something.
D58826
alsonot a good sign former congress criter and foreign policy expert Mike Rodgers has been asked to leave the transition team. Rogers might have been a conservative but he was still an adult when he came to running foreign policy.
hovercraft
@Hildebrand:
Our only hope is that he is burrowing a whole bunch of people where he can to make sure there are people below the executive level to ensure that the destruction is minimized. A benefit of having people with no clue, is they don’t realize that the figurehead is just that, the real work is done by the people lower down, and they can stop you from implementing your agenda. This is why Rudy and others suggested purging the agencies of all Obama appointees, but given that these morons didn’t even realize that they basically have to begin from scratch, when it comes to staffing the Westwing, it will take them a while to get round to fucking up the Federal agencies. Also too these hated government burocrats are dug in and very hard to get rid of, so they are in position to resist his worst tendencies.
Yes this is all wishful thinking.
The Moar You Know
@Pogonip: Please knock this dreamland shit off, it’s not happened before and it ain’t gonna happen now.
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
We did not rally behind Garland. We didn’t put on any public pressure. We decided that we could get a better justice once Hillary was elected, so we sat back and let it go. And now we’re fucked.
And any motherfucker who whines about RBG from this day forward gets one question from me: Why didn’t you support Merrick Garland when you had a chance?
catclub
@Pogonip:
Four statements lead to wisdom:
I was wrong.
I’m sorry.
I don’t know.
I need help.
Hard to imagine any of them passing his lips.
azlib
Read this from Charlie Stross. I think it is important.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/11/playtime-is-over.html
hovercraft
@Mnemosyne:
I like the cut of your jib. Brava.
Cain
We should convince Trump to tell the electoral folks to ditch him and then he can blame the electoral college but heave a sigh of relief that he didn’t get tagged. The man is not going to be able to handle it. He’s going to be a figurehead and then his entire image is going to be ruined (for at least 50%) because of all the promises.. But it won’t be a complete disaster because he’ll also undercut the people working for him by saying something different than what they said.. I don’t know, people are going to be very confused and angry for the next 4 years.
Major Major Major Major
@catclub: Ugh, North, that’s right.
This certainly makes W’s crew look like, well, a whole bunch of compassionate conservatives, though.
SatanicPanic
@Another Holocene Human: Say what you like but Carson did actually make his career on his own hard work, unlike the Donald.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@schrodinger’s cat:
The reciprocity on that visa policy is going to be a bitch, particularly for tech and manufacturing firms. A not small number of people have to go to India and China on a routine basis to deal with business.
A move like that is inherently destabilizing in and of itself. China is a good trading partner, and frankly helps with issues of global security. India, the same.
This can force a weird realignment – China, India, Southeast Asia and Iran (and Iranian proxies) against a Putinist American-Russian Empire. In that scenario, I’m hard pressed to see how the Asian powers (with their 3 billion people) lose.
Remember from several years back that there was a commercial set about 30 years from now, where a Chinese lecturer talked about how America lost her way? We may be looking at the Chinese Century.
SenyorDave
I still maintain that the country will be better off if Trump is out. Out of sheer hatred I’m hoping for VS coma, but anything would do. Pence is horrible but I think he would put in mainstream hacks in important positions, not completely unqualified nutjobs. The SCOTUS nominees under Pence will be no worse than under Trump. And Trump is de facto corrupt, don’t particularly think Pence is.
misterpuff
@Mnemosyne: Tell me when The Traitor GOPer Senate offered up that confirmation deal? Obama would have taken it.
Our job is to opine and shoot down trial balloons. That is what the public does on policy decisions.
Yes Job Number One is voting, which I am sure we all did, but having a megaphone (which social media is) means wielding it for the best. Then we shut up and accept.
Right now we need to keep shouting “Alt-Right” from every strata of our coalition.
Hell, maybe even SCOTUS might bend towards public opinion and disgust (although the 5 seem to be party hacks). Maybe Slappy or Roberts keel over too and RGB continues attending the opera for the next 4 years.
Obama is right . The election is over. Drumpf is goona be Preznit. However, our job is never done.
Cain
@The Moar You Know:
They will likely be killed too by some trump supporter.
The Dangerman
@WaterGirl:
All of it, Katie (pardon me as I mist up; I think that’s the first time I’ve ever used that line).
Doesn’t matter what or to whom; if it hits his inbox, he figuratively makes a paper airplane, tosses it, and whoever it lands closest to gets the gig.
schrodinger's cat
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: To me the matter is more personal, won’t be able to have family visit, easily, if at all. TPM had an email excerpt from a Session aide saying we want to make immigrants’ life so difficult that they will leave. He was not just talking about the undocumented.
hovercraft
@Another Holocene Human:
It’s not that we controlled the Senate, it’s that so many on our side were too busy bitching about Garland’s “failings” to mount a united front against the GOP obstruction. Every story was not simply the GOP destroying our courts by turning them into an extension of our partisan politics, every story was about how yes the GOP was full of shit, but also that many liberals were disappointed with the pick, and that there was politics being played by both sides. The purity ponies allowed the issue to be turned into just another case of politicians squabbling. Given the circumstances, we should have been united for Garland, not dreaming about pie in the sky nominees who would have caused Manchin to balk even in a democratically controlled senate.
schrodinger's cat
@Another Holocene Human: Sorry, I am in no mood to laugh.
mai naem mobile
@WereBear: I think there will be massive disinformation with real false numbers (a la Jack Welchs fake BLS numbers claim from Obama.) Then they will send Camacho out on a yuuuge rally (Washington Monument??) where he will announce that he’s made America great again,his job is done and Mike Pence can take over.
Matt McIrvin
@Percysowner: The House can’t choose anyone they want-it has to be from the top three in EV. I think they’d just choose Trump at this point. Also I suspect there are going to be more faithless D electors than R. The choices may be Clinton, Trump and Sanders.
Mnemosyne
@misterpuff:
We’ll never know, because we never put on any public pressure for them to offer it. We never called their offices, or held demonstrations outside Congress, or wrote letters to the editor. We just sat back and let it go, because some “left libertarian” assholes decided to tarnish Garland’s record and make their own pet issue a priority for the rest of us.
But, mostly, this is a pre-emptive strike to warn the assholes who will come swarming at Trump’s Supreme Court pick to try and tell us we were all wrong to support Clinton that I will rip their balls off. They sat by and did nothing when we could have had a liberal justice in that empty seat, and then they’re going to try and lecture us about how they were right and we were wrong? Fuck. Them.
schrodinger's cat
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: China and India are not allies, India and Russia are allies and were close during the Cold War. India has always had good relations with Iran. So a realignment that you suggest seems unlikely.
dmsilev
@schrodinger’s cat: How many generations back do you have to go before you and your family are no longer regarded as immigrants? Or is this one of those things where the answer depends on skin color?
Gin & Tonic
NYT has a story up about “disarray” in Donaldo’s transition team. OK, fine. But here’s a key graf about one of the bozos.
That’s it about Manafort. Think it might have been worth mentioning that Manafort helped Putin install Yanukovych in Ukraine, and was (allegedly) paid US$12M for his assistance? Maybe an extra sentence? Are pixels that fucking expensive?
WarMunchkin
@Mnemosyne:
Ah yes, the Bernie Sanders method of getting votes in Congress through not actually getting votes in Congress.
debit
@dmsilev:
Bingo.
Another Scott
Speaking of Pence, Kevin Drum points us to the backstabbing and incompetence already going on with the transition and staffing decisions.
Quoting a NYT story:
They’re not the Undefeatable SuperGeniuses that we’re worried about.
We need to fight them.
Cheers,
Scott.
misterpuff
Cole, two possible explanations (other than the grift):
1) Ben Carson was Armstrong Williams’s catspaw, William’s way into power.
-or-
2) Ben was running to elect Jesus Christ President and Ben was going to be his co-pilot.
He saw JC will have nothing to do with a Drumpf admin (Pence be damned) and opted out.
Well maybe a third: He slept through the interview and The Donald said Fuck him.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@schrodinger’s cat:
India and China may be forced together by circumstances in the Anglosphere and Western Europe.
Same with Vietnam and the rest of Southeast Asia.
I’d like to see there be some semblance of contestability on the world stage.
Robin G.
You know, all I keep hearing is that Trump supporters felt neglected. Ignored. Disenfranchised.
New plan: let’s make it fucking true.
They want to close polling places? How many locations does, say, rural Pennsylvania really need? A half-dozen sounds right. Upper Penninsula of Michigan? Maybe three. If a woman can just drive across state lines to get an abortion, a Trump supporter can drive across county lines to vote.
Don’t want education? Fine. Blue districts will look out for our own. We’ll let your children be so illiterate they can’t even find their polling locations in four years, let alone read a ballot.
You want to do contract work? Trump and his buddies will stiff you like they have everyone else. You have fun when your businesses close, you can’t get food stamps, and no one gives a shit.
When you can’t get health care because your BMI is too high, well… better hope nothing happens.
Logic doesn’t work on these people. Or facts. Or plans. Or basic human decency. Or even self-interest. We tried to help, and this is what we got. So let’s grind them into the dust with everything we possibly can, and laugh when they whine for help. Our compassion was used as weakness. We’ve got our own people to worry about. You fuckers are on your own.
When they go low, we kick ’em in the face.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub: Reagan’s first year was a scary extreme-right freak show. That’s what this reminds me of. It is probably worse, though.
Some of them screwed up and got turfed out pretty fast.
Mnemosyne
@schrodinger’s cat:
This is going to be to the tech industry what the crackdown on Mexican immigrants was to the agriculture industry, but these assholes won’t listen to anyone until they’ve driven us back into an economic depression, and even then, they’ll insist that the problem is that we just didn’t get rid of enough immigrants.
And, unfortunately, the existing problems with the H1-B visa are going to get even worse. If it seemed like indentured servitude before, when it was (comparatively) easy to apply for a green card and then citizenship, it’s basically going to be poorly paid slavery with the threat of deportation held over those workers’ heads all the time.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@dmsilev:
Its all color.
Mnemosyne
@WarMunchkin:
We. Didn’t. Even. Try.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: Maybe Thiel can whisper in his ear.
You know, there’s no real shortage of software engineers. Just good ones.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Robin G.:
*swoon*
You want to have babies with me?
D58826
The link isn’t about the election/politics but the story demonstrates why science and a data driven world are hard. The ten year study has some good news actually
http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/heart-experts-stunned-by-results-of-celebrex-drug-study/ar-AAkfmQT?li=BBnb2gg&ocid=iehp
Jeffro
Side note: while we are busy boycotting Trump businesses let’s not forget to patronize ones that stood up to this scumbag…
…all my wing nut relatives (and progressive ones too) are getting Macy’s gift cards this year ?
Peale
@schrodinger’s cat: Could you link out to that visitor visa issue?
artem1s
Carson wanted a massive email list for his snake oil sales. now he’s got one and he will be reselling it over and over and over again. I hope his supporters spend the rest of their days fielding emails from every con artist, phishing scammer, televangelist, and Nigerian Princes that exist on the planet.
Mnemosyne
@D58826:
This bit is even more good news:
Applejinx
@Hildebrand: Obama-ny Cricket.
“When you wish upon a staaaar…”
NR
@Mnemosyne: Still bitter, still irrational, still blaming anyone and everyone else instead of accepting responsibilty and looking at the real culprits of this disaster, I see.
The Republicans blocked Garland. So that’s not on us.
Losing the presidential election, and consequently the Supreme Court, most definitely is on you, however. You and the neoliberal Democratic party leadership that you continue to unthinkingly and unquestioningly support. The same leadership, I will add, that masterminded huge Democratic losses nationwide and handed, among many other things, the Senate to the Republicans, which gave them the power to block Garland in the first place.
So you can fuck right off with your blame game. This one’s on you. Not us.
Oh, and civil liberties are civil rights, moron.
schrodinger's cat
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: Unfortunately, will not happen anytime soon. China has designs over Indian territory, plus India and China went to war in the 1960s where China kicked India’s ass. There are years of distrust between the two.
Robin G
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: You want to bring children into *this* world?
Another Scott
@Robin G.: As Atrios reminds us, blaming the voters isn’t a good idea.
It’s the job of the candidates and the parties to make the case. It’s the job of the government to make sure the process is fair.
We’re not going to win by beating up on people who didn’t vote for our team. We need to work harder, smarter, and with more persistence.
This Vox story has much too broad a brush, but we need to think about what he’s saying…
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Applejinx
@Mnemosyne: Wait, what? I thought that was Republicans obstructing him. I don’t remember ever griping about Garland, largely because I trust Obama’s smarts and also don’t know shit about judges :)
Since when did leftists obstruct Garland? News to me. I’m sure there was some bitching, though.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
Have you bothered to read up on Citizens United and Shelby County yet, or are you still insisting that the huge change in the electoral map between 2009 and 2016 was totally unrelated because shut up, that’s why?
NR
@Another Holocene Human: The mental gymnanstics Mnemosyne is doing to avoid assigning the responsibility for this debacle where it belongs could be a goddamned Olympic sport.
Major Major Major Major
@Another Scott: That vox story is stupid. The people who wrote it, edited it, shared it, and read it–and read this blog–live in sort of a very small smugness bubble. It mentions stuff like The Daily Show as being part of the problem, yes? Well, nobody actually watches The Daily Show.
The reactionaries this election weren’t upset about John Oliver, they were upset about Black Lives Matter and safe spaces and transgendered people wanting to use the right bathroom.
ETA: OK, perhaps ‘stupid’ is too strong a word, but that article is part of this bubble too.
debit
@Robin G.: I like the cut of your jib.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@WereBear: One of the delightful ironies in all this awfulness it’s Donald Trump, a man who spent his entire life try to make himself above any criticism or judgement, now is going to have everything he does, say and even eats the public business. Franky I expect Trump to do a full Brenbart and stroke out at during a 3:00am Twitter ragegasm over some People article harping on the ugly tie Trump wore to a state dinner.
Amir Khalid
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Vietnam has been a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations for decades. Allying with South-East Asia wouldn’t exactly be a new thing for it.
Mnemosyne
@Applejinx:
You must not have been around much at the time. The butthurt whining from the “left” was insane. Here’s one example. Here’s another.
Oh, and “Democracy Now” had Terry O’Neill from the National Organization of Women on to shake her head about nominating a white man. So fuck her with a rusty chainsaw, too.
hovercraft
@Enhanced Voting Techinques: He’s already whining about losing the popular vote, he only lost it because he didn’t try to win it. Every story about him going forward must mention that he didn’t win the support of the majority of the voters, it will drive him nuts.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
Have you bothered to read up on Citizens United and Shelby County yet, or are you still insisting that the huge change in the electoral map between 2009 and 2016 was totally unrelated because shut up, that’s why?
rikyrah
@Mnemosyne:
come.sit.by.me.
NR
@Mnemosyne: Are you still insisting that the failed neoliberal leadership of the Democratic party that put the wishes of their corporate donors above the needs of working Americans had no effect on the subsequent electoral disasters because fuck you, that’s why?
Barney
More on the Basket of Deplorables that Trump’s spawn are throwing together for his Cabinet:
Well, a good friend of Carl Icahn is just what you need to drain a swamp, isn’t it? Mnuchin made millions at Goldman Sachs, like his father did; Ross was the head of International Coal Group when 12 miners died at its Sago Mine in 2006. They bought it in March 2005, and, according to Wikipedia, “In 2005, the mine was cited by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) 208 times for violating regulations, up from 68 in 2004. Of those, 96 were considered S&S (significant/serious and substantial).”
As for Giuliani at State – might not be as disastrous as Attorney General, I suppose. Or as bad as John Bolton at State. As The Guardian notes, his foreign policy experience consists of using 9/11 in campaigns, but at least he doesn’t have Bolton’s hatred of diplomacy as a concept.
schrodinger's cat
@Peale: I found it on an immigration lawyer’s twitter feed. Its been circulated in a FAIR email. The idea originated with Chuck Grassley.
The Electoral College winner’s 10 pt plan on immigration
Check #7
Another Holocene Human
@Mnemosyne: I think the voters who stayed home–you know, the reason why we lost?–cared not a fart about Merrick Garland. He did his job, which was to allow Nice Polite Republicans to quiet switch their votes to Hilary. What we needed to do with our unlikely voters was articulate a simple plan to help them out. We never did that.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
Oh, look, another stew of buzzwords that doesn’t look at the actual facts. I have a map, too. Note how well it correlates with your map. But, no, it was “neoliberal economics” that changed the map, not voter suppression. You stupid fuck.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@D58826:
That’s also unsettling because foreign policy is one of those secular things. So are they clearing the way for some wacka doddle who’s going to launch the great crusade against the Templar – Illuminati – Zionist – Space Lizard – Midnight Anal Probe conspiracy?
Mnemosyne
@Another Holocene Human:
It’s not about the voters who stayed home. It’s about us. Political junkies. We failed, because we let a bunch of left-libertarian assholes sow division about Garland because they didn’t like his Guantanamo decision.
If Garland was in that seat, we would have been able to mitigate some of the massive damage that Trump is about to cause, but now we can’t, because we had to hold out for a perfectly pure Supreme Court justice instead of a really good liberal one.
hovercraft
Trump Campaign’s Easy Answers Confront Hard Reality
NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/16/business/economy/trump-campaigns-easy-answers-confront-hard-reality.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=nytpolitics&smtyp=cur&_r=0
How ’bout them apples suckers. The scary question, is what happens when the shit hits the fan?
Robin G
@Another Scott:
Smarter, harder, and more persistence suggests they can be reached. We live in a post-factual society, so let’s quit pretending like we can rely on facts. It’s cleek’s law: whatever we stand for, no matter how much it might benefit them, they’ll be against it.
If they’re going to hate us anyway, let’s give ’em a reason. Let them
have a taste of what *real* marginalization looks like. Let’s use everything we have and everything we can think of from here on out. Let them rot.
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
The New York Times is funny. //
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: There aren’t two million illegal immigrants in the prison system. Experts say that the real number is probably 1/10 of that. So who is he going to round up.
Barney
@Enhanced Voting Techinques: See #102 – Giuliani is now the frontrunner for State, according to the NYT.
dww44
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: I genuinely don’t get your argument. How, politically, would it have been possible to get Republicans to support any Obama nominee to fill Scalia’s seat? That was never ever gonna happen, no matter how vocal the support would have been from Democratic supporters if the nominee were more liberal.
We simply didn’t have the political firepower to achieve a different outcome. Also, too, Merrick Garland was and is a very qualified and deserving SC nominee, age notwithstanding.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
@chopper: The remarks above are code for, “Carson wanted HHS/ Surgeon General [ed. Mamma Mia!], and got a big ‘nuh unh.'” Christ, Trump has an amazing ability to screw over his partners at the the first possible opportunity.
Mnemosyne
@dww44:
We rolled over and gave up, and now we’re screwed. We might not have succeeded, but I would be feeling a lot less nauseous today if I felt like we had given it our best shot and not just let the dudebros tell us what they thought was best.
Aleta
Hasn’t stopped anyone else from crashing the gate. So either they made him no offer, or else he refused to be a mouthpiece later served for dinner.
SatanicPanic
@dww44: This. I don’t see it happening. I was very wrong this year about the election so I don’t think anyone should trust my opinions, but my suspicion is that protesting/complaining, etc. only works on people who are already on your side. Not sure it changes minds, at least, not at the levels we’re talking about.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: Luckily for him, it’s a cult of personality, so any position changes he makes will be what the rubes now think they wanted all along.
Tripod
Not fit to serve.
Knock him out of the box now. It will be an ugly shit storm, but far worse if they wait.
NR
@Mnemosyne: Oh look, your map is from 2016, when the vast majority of the electoral damage done to the Democratic party happened earlier than that. Idiot.
Also, I’ve never said that voter suppression doesn’t matter. I’ve consistently said we should fight for the right of all Americans to vote, not because of electoral consequences, but because it’s the right fucking thing to do.
You, on the other hand, refuse to acknowledge that any responsibility for these electotal disasters rests with the party leadership that you supported all these years. Instead, you prefer to shit on the people who were right all along. Brilliant.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Barney: Ah, Giuliani petty revenge on Hillary then.
schrodinger's cat
@dmsilev: Like Ann C said, 4 grandparents born in the US to be not considered an immigrant.
schrodinger's cat
@Mnemosyne: It is not easy to apply for a GC even now.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
That’s not what your map shows. Got another one to show that the damage all happened prior to 2008?
And don’t think I’m not pissed at my party leadership for downplaying and ignoring this slow-rolling disaster. But the slow-rolling disaster was deliberate and systematic voter suppression, not “economic neoliberalism” or whatever the Russian propagandists running Bernie’s campaign told you to say today.
bemused senior
@catclub: There is a great Elizabeth Drew article from back in the day (1981) re James Watt. I just want to remind everyone that bad as this is, it was bad before and we got through it. http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1981-05-04#folio=CV1
You have to be a subscriber to use this link, so I’m hoping some of you are.
Another Holocene Human
@SatanicPanic: Exactly. Cleek’s law. We were hoping McConnell would sh!t himself and go for it, but he didn’t, and we lost. The end. There’s no way more agitating would have gotten us what we wanted. Maybe if we held our breath until we turned blue?
NR
@Mnemosyne:
Sure. Here’s 2014.
You still just don’t fucking get it. Your own link shows that there was no voter suppression in Pennsylvania (which Hillary lost), Michigan (which Hillary lost), and Minnesota (which Hillary almost lost). It was the economic approach of the party that cost them those states, no matter how much you want to pretend otherwise.
The bottom line is this. You guys, and the leadership you supported, got your way for the last eight years. It was a complete and utter disaster on every political level. The loss of the Supreme Court is 100% on you, not us.
NR
@dww44: I love the “logic” on display in these comments.
Back during the primary: “Bernie can’t get his proposals through Congress! Yelling at the Republicans won’t work!”
Today: “We should have yelled at the Republicans more! That surely would have worked to confirm Garland!”
The best part is they don’t even see the contradiction.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
2014 happened before 2008?
I’m starting to see what the problem is here.
2012 happened before 2014.
And American Progress disagrees with you.
How many more times do you need me to prove you wrong?
LAC
@Robin G.: “They go low, we kick them in the face” Can I get a dozen T-shirts of this to hand out? Because that is my new motto.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
Oh, and let’s discuss Pennsylvania for a moment, shall we?
Half Of All National Voter Intimidation Complaints Are Coming From Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s Shameful Record of Voter Suppression and the Partisan and Sometimes Racially Charged Motivations of Those Administering Its Elections
But it was all about “neoliberal economics” and the massive voter suppression didn’t matter. Riiiiiiight.
Mnemosyne
@NR:
If you want me to go dig up your comments whining about what a terrible nominee Garland was, I’ll be happy to, but you’ll have to wait until I get back from lunch.
LAC
@Mnemosyne: Go ahead – please put this fucknuts away like a used rag.
NR
@Mnemosyne: You haven’t “proved” shit, Skippy. 2010 happened before 2012. Dems lost control of 20 state legislative chambers in 2010, as well as the US House and several Senate seats.
All courtesy of the neoliberal you continue to unquestioningly support.
NR
@Mnemosyne: What the fuck does that have to do with anything? You’re the one saying that if only we’d yelled at the Republicans more, they would have relented, despite the fact that you said the exact opposite in the primary.
hovercraft
Official in West Virginia on leave after racist Obama post
These people are not going to change who they are.
NR
@Mnemosyne: How many complaints are we talking about? Because I remember a few days ago, when you posted an article and screamed “41,000 Obama voters were suppressed in Milwaukee!!!” Except when reading the article, I found out that it said there were only slightly over 100 documented cases of people being denied ballots. Hillary lost Wisconsin by 25,000 votes.
So you’ll pardon me if I want to see some actual numbers before I believe your spin.
LAC
@hovercraft: But, but… let’s reach out and give them a coke and smile. And ask with sugar on top why oh why did you vote for Trump? Why?
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
That’s the point, just like the Tea Party hordes, this was all bullshit, everything the Shitgibbon said was bullshit. The problem is that once you get the mob all riled up you can’t just tell them that’s it go home now. They need something to focus their anger on, they need a lynching, or they will turn on you. John Boehner and now Paul Ryan are learning the hard way, these people have been stirred into a frenzy, and just getting the Shitgibbon elected, will not be enough, they want to see the “liberals and the elite” destroyed. The uglyness is just beginning.
Tehanu
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Hey! Get in line! — unless you want to go for a threesome? Works for me!
Another Scott
@LAC: I like what Obama had to say at his press conference:
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Tehanu
@NR:
NR and Mnemosyne both: Cut the circular firing squad, please. This is the Achilles heel of the left and always has been. Blame the idiots who voted for Il Douche because they don’t know the difference between a reality show and reality; blame the KKK and the “lite” racists (who are shocked, SHOCKED! I tell you, at the very idea that their belief that only white people are worth anything could be construed as racism); blame the 1% who’ve poured out money for a generation to bring back the Gilded Age — but show some goddam solidarity for OUR side. If you want purity tests, go join the friggin’ Oath Keepers.
SgrAstar
@Mnemosyne: “We” did not roll over on this. Many of us did indeed call our legislators about the Garland nomination. Trouble was, my friends and I live in a red, red state. No dems in The House or in the Senate means that they ignore your letters and calls with impunity. I really don’t see how we could have overcome the repub majority in the Senate on this. you may hate the people you call “purity ponies”, but the SC debacle isn’t on them.
gvg
@Mnemosyne: Ahh…I am not a GOP Congressman. they are the ones who wanted to hold out for a conservative justice. I hadn’t noticed any here actually advocating for that but if they did, it was probably trying to make the best of it. whatever purity pony liberals got on your nerves had no impact on real life as usual.
Sorry I do think Ginsberg should have retired during that short window Obama had both houses of Congress. Stuff happens. Other than that short window though it was a risk.
Tehanu
Oh — and if you really want to be scared, read this – and remember, solidarity isn’t just for us in the U.S.:
Playtime is Over.
NR
@Tehanu: Look, Mnemosyne posted an angry, irrational rant blaming liberals for the fact that Merrick Garland was not confirmed. Of course I’m going to push back against that. The “logic” behind this claim (if you can even call it that) is that somehow, liberals stopped us from pressuring the Republicans to confirm Garland, and if only the liberals hadn’t been obsessed with their purity pony, they wouldn’t have gotten in the way and we could have pressured the Republicans and they would have relented and confirmed Garland. This is despite the fact that the very same people saying this were laughing at and shitting all over the idea that we could possibly have pressured the Republicans to pass Bernie Sanders’ proposals back during the primary.
So there’s that contradiction. But more than that, there’s the fact that Obama and Senate Democrats did, in fact, put a ton of pressure on the Republicans to confirm Garland and it didn’t do any good. If they think adding a few more liberal voices to the mix (most liberals backed Garland anyway) would have changed anything, I want some of what they’re smoking.
Losing that Supreme Court seat is going to suck, yes. It’s one of many bad things that’s going to happen over the next few years. But I will NOT, as a liberal, assume the blame for it, nor will I allow anyone to blame me. Fuck that noise. The responsibility for this Supreme Court debacle rests with the party leadership that fucked up the last election and gave the Senate to the Republicans, and fucked up this most recent election and gave the White House to the Republicans. Full stop.
Seth Owen
@schrodinger’s cat: The territory disputed between India and China is mostly worthless mountain wilderness, certainly not a vital enough interest for either country to prevent cooperation or even alliance between them if it should become expedient.